This animation is of the creation of Frank Hurley’s iconic composite image, known by many names including An Episode after the Battle of Zonnebeke, Over the Top, The Raid or Battle of Zonnebeke.

The original photograph was first shown at the Australian Art Exhibition at Grafton Galleries, London which opened on May 25, 1918.

Frank Hurley was the official war photographer and his job was to record scenes of Australians at war during World War 1. Hurley was shocked by the scale of the killing, destruction and waste. As an artist, as well as a documentary photographer, Hurley wished to convey the real brutality of war and chose to create a potent image made up of sections of 12 separate photographs. This brought him into conflict with C.E.W Bean, the official correspondent to the war and the author of the 6 volume Australia in the First World War.

Known as a composite image, An Episode after the Battle of Zonnebeke, can be seen as an example of the subtleties of using and interpreting historical sources.